The internet has raised $311,000 for the guy walking 42 miles to work each day, and he just got a free car

As we previously reported, 56-year-0ld Detroit resident James Robertson has been walking 21 miles, each way, without complaint, to his factory job.

The commute left him time for only about two hours of sleep per night. And, in 10 years of walking to work after his old car died, he never missed a day of work.

When 19-year-old Evan Leedy, a student at Detroit's Wayne State University, got wind of Robertson's ordeal, he started a GoFundMe campaign hoping to raise $5,000 to buy him a beater. But the story went viral and instantly raised $44,000.

It has now been five days and the campaign has raised over $311,000 so far, and is still climbing like mad. In the time it took us to write this story, it grew by another $1,000.

And today, a local Ford dealership gave Robertson a new car for free, a red Ford Taurus.

Robertson's story touched thousands of hearts. Nearly 12,000 people pitched in to the GoFundMe campaign. HuffPost called him the hardest working man in America.

He didn't complain about his commute, nor did he ask for help. His $11/hour job didn't pay enough to get a new car, and Detroit's limited bus schedule didn't leave him with much in terms of public transit options. It only covered about two miles of his commute. But he wasn't giving up that job for a closer one and a pay cut, possibly to the $8.15 minimum wage, and he wasn't going to let his company or his coworkers down because of his
transportation issues.

And now, thanks to the generosity of thousands of people and Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights, Michigan, his long, long walk is officially over.